Re: Re-Body GT-E
Postby 427XR7 » 5 minutes ago in the “for sale” section, too.
I take a “kinder/gentler” approach to this issue. Let me add a few other points/ask a few questions: 1) Would you rather see a GTE that is damaged beyond repair, unsafe to drive and never able to take the torque of even a 6 cyl engine crushed? I’m sure a few people would insist on it. What if that car was re-bodied, returned to the show circuit and inspired current and future car folks to embrace the hobby? 2) I’m not insisting that a re-body sell for the same money as a genuine car, but I am asking for it to look like and act like one. This car does that very well. Very, very well. I, personally, get aroused at the sight of this car. The thought of taking a spirited ride with an expendable car is very appealing to me. Carroll Shelby would agree. How many GTEs never see the light of day due to their owners not wanting to risk the chipped paint? There’s a special place in the car hobby for a car like this. That place is a “drive-em” event at national events, squealing tires on Woodward Avenue and sliding the car sideways after a big, white smoky burnout through a remote intersection; preferably on a clear stretch of highway. It has been said that joy in life comes not from owning toys, but playing with them. GAME ON!
3) Re-bodying is not unique to GTEs, it is just more honest. That is a good thing. What percentage of high performance cars that cross the auction block have always had that perfect under carriage, die strait radiator core support and perfect wheel wells? Don’t be naïve, the answer is likely to be less than 50%. I’m not saying this changes things.
4) Think about where the hobby/society is heading. Time changes most things. Does the 1930’s hot rod crowd care if they’re flying the original title/tags on that '31 coupe with the 450 HP 351 stroker motor? They bought the title out of a shoe box at a swap meet.
5)What type of success is Dynacorn meeting with their re-production bodies? They say they’re licensed by Ford, GM, etc. If it’s ok in some cases to use a re-production body (I’m not a federal lawyer) made by an aftermarket manufacturer, surely, at some level you can be OK with using a body/parts made “back in the day” in the Motherland. Our hobby continues to evolve. Can you envision the year 2035?
6) Cougars are, to me, like family. The greater the numbers that come around (good, bad or in-between) the better. Car shows, like the Thanksgiving dinner table, are a more of an “alive” place with larger numbers and participation. There’s a place set for re-bodies GTEs, kinda like the surfer dude that brings a bag of chips. He’s got great stories after a few beers.
I don’t think anyone objects to a re-body. They just object to it being sold as if it were the original unibody or being valued as such. I agree with much of your post. When someone saves only the original pieces where the VIN is stamped, and replaces everything else around it, I fail to see much distinction between that and a re-body. But that’s just my opinion.
My objection in the other thread was only that the seller relies so heavily on the word “rare” in describing this particular car. The bottom line is that it’s NOT a rare car. It’s a relatively common car (albeit, nicely restored) with rare parts added to it. At the risk of causing offense to some, it’s the automotive equivalent of a sex change coupled with identity theft- at the end of the day, all the added or subtracted parts don’t change the DNA.
I’m not interested in getting into an argument with anyone on this topic, but I’ll just state my point of view on it and use Jody’s example as the basis.
The DNA of a GT-E is not in the unibody. It’s exactly the same unibody as used for every other 1968 Cougar. The only thing that makes it a GT-E is the use of a “W” stamp for the engine code and only for the first few hundred. After that, it could be a 68.5 R-code Cougar until the assembly line starts doing its thing based on the build sheet. In that sense, the DNA is in the parts that get added to the unibody and any modifications that are made to the unibody that are unique to the GT-E.
ALL of the unibody alterations (to the extent there are any) can be reproduced from the lowliest Cougar on the planet. When the original GT-E parts are added and the result is indistinguishable from the factory version, it’s hard to accept that the resulting car is somehow less a GT-E than the one that was basically rebuilt all around the few VIN-stamped structural parts that survived from an original.
I know I’m in the minority on this and accept that most will disagree with me. But I’ve yet to hear anyone explain a clear, objective difference in either functionality or quality resulting from a re-body that wouldn’t also exist with an extensively reconstructed original. The opposition to re-bodies seems to always boil down to personal points of view or legalities (both of which are legitimate answers) rather than an objectively qualitative difference.
It`s a bit like humans, every person get a number when they are born and ruled into the system, the # you use on driving License, social Security Cards, Health care etc.
If you get sick and needs to remove like an arm, it`s still you with your #, if you need a heart transplant, you may get a New heart from a celebrity, athlete etc, it will not make you an celebrtiy, athlethe etc, it will still be you in your body with your number.
You may og ahead and get yourself a new # if that information is obtained illegally and is witheld, its fraud, if it is obtained trough legal channels for what ever reason and its fully disclosed, then its legal, well there is some times info like this is witheld from the Public, and that is when its changed due to witness protection programs, or other safety issues, but that do not obligh to vehickles, unless your Cougar have seen or done something it shouldn`t, and other cougars are chasing it
So bottom line, that special # that makes it a GT-E is mated to that particular unibody at the factory, if you cut it out and transplants it to a different body that had a different # when it was made, that is usually illegal and a fraud, there are ways to achieve this legally, but then it would not be that particular or special car the left the factory, even if the unibodys are identical, it`s still unique due to the # that particular body has been given.
Words have meaning. A clone or tribute means that you are building a copy of a particular car from bits and pieces from various sources. You started out with a six cylinder Camaro and ended up with a Z28 look-a-like.
I like clones and tributes. We can’t all own the real deal. Clones and tribute cars are honest. They are exactly what you see, today. History is not a part of the deal. (clones are typically an exact copy of a car that does exist, a tribute may include features no found on any original production vehicle eg: Eliminator Convertible.)
I think the word re-body has become a pejorative. it shouldn’t be. Re-body is really telling you that the entire body has been replaced. No more, no less. It is a statement of the extent of the work that was done to the car. The whole damn body was shot to hell.
It has become a pejorative for a particular set of reasons that have nothing to do with the car itself. For example:
The builder could have restored the original body and chose to take a short cut. This makes us all unhappy because so much of the real deal got crushed. The car that remains is what it is.
Sellers lie about the extent of the car that is original. This is bad behavior on the sellers part. No fault to the car.
Sellers use VIN numbers from cars that have been parted and scrapped and try to pretend that a collection of parts is the original car. This is outright fraud. The car that ends up being built might get called a re-body but in reality it is a clone.
Value is in the eye of the beholder. If you value original parts then a rebody will have less value than a car with original sheet metal, but then so will a car with replacement hood, fenders, quarters, doors, trunk lid, and roof. If you value being able to drive the car like it belonged to your ex-wife’s divorce attorney, then you might not want to pay for a bunch of priceless original parts.
Finally, its like my grampa’s hatchet: replaced the handle three times and the head twice but it still means the world to me… A big part of these cars is the way they make you feel. If it doesn’t feel good to you, don’t touch it.
I don’t have a problem with a re-body, per se, but I stand by my objection to saying that it’s a rare car has somehow been restored. It hasn’t. It’s been destroyed (or rotted away to nothing) and a car that was previously just an ordinary car, now becomes reborn as the one that no longer exists. I appreciate the fact that the uni-bodies are the same for GTE and non GTE cars, but to my thinking, the bulk of the value of a rare model like a GTE is that as they get destroyed or rot away, the survivors become more and more valuable.
I agree that value is subjective, but if you take my earlier analogy to its logical conclusion, waking up to find a re-body in your bed is not likely to be a pleasant experience under any circumstances.
I don’t know about that, Jody. If I go to bed with a Cougar that’s seen better days and wake up next to a completely restored Kate Upton, what’s not pleasant about that?
That one appears to be mostly original, Bob, not a true re-body. At least judging by the ah… er… red area in the photo. Now please excuse me while I go pour battery acid in my eyes and find a good priest.
